BEST BOOKS 2019

Poetic reflections on race, class, violence, segregation, and the hidden histories that shape our divided urban landscapes.

3) Acid for the children: a memoir

Author

Flea

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Book, CD audio book, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

The co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers chronicles his life from his birth in Australia and upbringing on the streets of Los Angeles through his rise to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

4) The age of light: a novel

Author

Scharer, Whitney

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Book, CD audio book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

A novel inspired by the life of the Vogue model-turned-renowned photographer finds Lee Miller relocating to 1929 Paris, where she becomes the muse and colleague of the mercurial surrealist, Man Ray.

5) Agent running in the field

Author

Le Carré, John

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Sánchez Arévalo, Daniel

Set in London in 2018, Agent Running in the Field follows a twenty-six year old solitary figure who, in a desperate attempt to resist the political turbulence swirling around him, makes connections that will take him down a dangerous path. In his plot and characterization le Carre is as thrilling as ever and in the way he writes about our times he proves himself, once again, to be the greatest chronicler of our age.

6) Alice's island

Author

Description

7) Alienated America: why some places thrive while others collapse

"Alice Dupont's perfect marriage was a perfect lie. When her husband, Chris, dies in a car accident, far from where he should have been, Alice's life falls apart. After the police close the case, she is left with more questions than answers. While learning to cope with her loss and her new identity as a single mother of two, Alice becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery surrounding her husband's death and decides to start her own investigation....

Author

Carney, Timothy P

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8) All about dinner: simple meals, expert advice

Respected conservative journalist and commentator Timothy P. Carney continues the conversation begun with Hillbilly Elegy and the classic Bowling Alone in this hard-hitting analysis that identifies the true factor behind the decline of the American dream: it is not purely the result of economics as the left claims, but the collapse of the institutions that made us successful, including marriage, church, and civic life. During the 2016 presidential...

Author

Stevens, Molly

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Book, CD audio book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

A Finalist for the 2020 IACP Cookbook Award
A Finalist for the 2020 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award (General)

The Atlantic "Best Cookbooks of 2019" • Washington Post "Cookbooks That Inspired Us in 2019" • Christian Science Monitor "Best Cookbooks of 2019" • NPR "Favorite Books of 2019" • WBUR Here & Now "Best Cookbooks of 2019"

An award-winning cookbook author and cooking teacher

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9) All this could be yours

Author

Attenberg, Jami

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Description

Book, CD audio book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print, Playaway

"From New York Times best-selling author Jami Attenberg comes a sharp, funny, and emotionally powerful novel about a family reuniting at the deathbed of its patriarch. In reckoning with his secret past, can they rebuild and begin anew?"--

10) American pop: a novel

Author

Wright, Snowden

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"Moving from Mississippi to Paris to New York and back again, an epic saga of family, ambition, passion, and tragedy that brings to life one unforgettable Southern dynasty - the Forsters, founders of the world's first major soft-drink company - against the backdrop of more than a century of American cultural history"--

11) American spy: a novel

Author

Wilkinson, Lauren

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12) The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company

In 1986, Marie Mitchell is a young African American woman working for the FBI. Frustrated that she's been overlooked for jobs because of her gender, she jumps at the opportunity to join a task force devoted to taking down the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso. After seducing Sankara, she finds herself torn between her duty to her country and the feelings she's developed for the man she's come to admire.

Author

Dalrymple, William

Description

13) Antisocial: online extremists, techno-utopians, and the hijacking of the American conversation

"In August 1756 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army--what we would now call an act of involuntary privatization. The East India Company's founding charter authorized it to 'wage war' and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government...

Author

Marantz, Andrew

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"For several years, Andrew Marantz, a New Yorker staff writer, has been embedded in two worlds. The first is the world of social-media entrepreneurs, who, acting out of naïvete and reckless ambition, upended all traditional means of receiving and transmitting information. The second is the world of the people he calls "the gate crashers" -- the conspiracists, white supremacists, and nihilist trolls who have become experts at using social media to...

14) Any Old Diamonds: Lilywhite Boys, #1

Author

Series

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Lord Alexander Pyne-ffoulkes is the younger son of the Duke of Ilvar, with a bitter grudge against his wealthy father. The Duke intends to give his Duchess a priceless diamond parure on their wedding anniversary—so Alec hires a pair of jewel thieves to steal it.
The Duke's remote castle is a difficult target, and Alec needs a way to get the thieves in. Soldier-turned-criminal Jerry Crozier has the answer: he'll pose as a Society gentleman

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15) The archive of alternate endings: a novel

Author

Drager, Lindsey

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"Tracking the evolution of Hansel and Gretel at seventy-five-year intervals that correspond with earth's visits by Halley's Comet, The Archive of Alternate Endings explores how stories are disseminated and shared, edited and censored, voiced and left untold. In 1456, Johannes Gutenberg's sister uses the tale as a surrogate for sharing a family secret only her brother believes. In 1835, The Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm revise the tale to bury a...

16) Are you listening?

Author

Walden, Tillie

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17) The art of statistics: how to learn from data

A chance encounter sends runaway Bea on a journey through West Texas with Lou, who Bea must trust as she is driven to confront buried truths about loss and heartbreak.

Author

Spiegelhalter, D. J

Description

Book, CD audio book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Shows how to apply statistical reasoning to real-world problems. This isn't simply memorizing formulas or using the tools in a spreadsheet: he emphasizes the importance of clarifying questions, assumptions, and expectations, and--more importantly--knowing how to responsibly interpret the results the software generates.

18) Ask again yes: a novel

Author

Keane, Mary Beth

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19) Audience of one: Donald Trump, television, and the fracturing of America

"A family saga about two Irish American families in a New York suburb, the love between two of their children, and the tragedies that threaten to tear them apart and destroy their futures"--

Author

Poniewozik, James

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"A generational work that, using television, reframes America's identity through the rattled mind of a septuagenarian, insomniac, cable-news-junkie president. In the tradition of great cultural figures like Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman, New York Times chief television critic James Poniewozik traces the history of television and mass media from the early 1980s to today, and demonstrates how a "volcanic, camera- hogging antihero" merged with America's...

20) Ayesha at last

Author

Jalaluddin, Uzma

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